Category Archives: those damn kids

Would have posted sooner but my ever dependable comcast went down again. Looks like someone removed a splitter from the outside. I suppose it could be the NSA or those damn kids or an older kid with a graying beard. I hope it was those damn kids.

They (those damn kids) probably didn’t want me to comment about this proposed draft. Multi Medium guy sez this is a tactical mistake by the republicans. But who would stop them? The Democrats simply haven’t showed a lot of spine. I can see them now approving the draft and making the argument that “sending the dissenters into detention camps and revoking their citizenship all for the public good don’t you know”, said Nancy Pelosi and locals Bob Casey and Jason Altmire… A great opportunity for an opposition party though (paging Ms. Sheehan to recruit more candidates…)…

Just for the record: If you’re drafted to fight in the Iraq war just say no. Or wait until Mitt’s five or six sons get drafted because we know a Bush administration draft would be ever so fair and impartial, where rich and poor would serve in equal numbers, over in Hobbitville, right down from the land of milk and honey, beyond the seventh galaxy etcetera etcetera…

[Army of None: Strategies to Counter Military Recruitment, End War, and Build a Better World By Aimee Allison and David Solnit, Seven Stories Press, August, 2007]

Army of None is a manual for opponents of the Iraq war who want to cut off its supply of cannonfodder.It presents how- to guides, hot tips, and successful examples of counterrecruitment strategies in schools and communities around the U.S.It argues that such actions can be a critical part of ending the war by depriving the military of soldiers to fight it. It presents this strategy as part of a more general “people power” approach to combating war and transforming society based on the withdrawal of popular compliance with authority.

The authors argue that without enough soldiers, it is impossible to sustain a large, long-term occupation in a country like Iraq.[1]Anyone who doubts this argument should read the recent speech by Senator Richard Lugar – the one that heralded the stampede of Republican politicians away from support of Bush’s Iraq policy.Along with the intractable political situation in Iraq and the loss of support for the war by the American people, Lugar listed a third factor that makes current policy untenable:“The fatigue of our military.”Indeed, the window for employing American troops “without damaging our military strength or our ability to respond to other national security priorities,” according to Lugar, “is closing.”